Ed's Beer Blog: 12/19/08

Glühwein is hot spiced wine. They serve it at all the local weihnachtsmarkt, Christmas Markets. Every little town seems to have a market. They set up little booths and decorate them in a Christmas theme and sell various wares. They usually have a grill so you can get Brats and a place to get the Glühwein. The Glühwein comes in coffee mugs with a deposit, so you can get the mug for a Euro or two. So far we have collected at least two mugs from all the weihnachtsmarkts we visited:

Stuttgart (with C&D)
Esslingen (with C&D)
Ulm
Köln
Aachen
Ludwigsburg
Rothenburg ob der Tauber

BTW, they also sell hot punch (Kinderpunsch) for those that are young or driving. They have a zero tolerance policy for DUI here (I hear) so we actually have not had that much Glühwein. We have also only seen Stuttgart's Market in a bit of snow, all the others were just cold or rainy.

So we have been busy. We had to go see a English speaking specialist in Ulm, so we had dinner in their Market right at the base of the tallest church in the world. Their market was smallish.

This week I had business in Aachen. We also found out Mark Miller was headed to Germany, so we could meet in Frankfurt. However, Mark did not show on the Airplane so we thought customs got him or he missed his flight and never told us. Apparently when Mark says Saturday, he sometimes means Sunday. :-) He did make it to Germany, and we met up in Köln on Sunday afternoon. Before he got there, we went to reconstructed Roman ruins near Frankfurt in Saalburg. We hit Düsseldorf, but there was not much going on there. We also saw the Köln modern art museum on Drew's request. With Mark, we saw the cathedral (but we did not climb the tower), the church treasures (including relics from the three wise men) and the Roman museum. It is amazing to see how the Romans were in this area 2000 years ago. We parked right under the Köln Cathedral, and they had a little marker next to the old Church well. This thing is over 1000 years old and just hanging out in a parking garage for anyone to climb on. The Roman museum was put together after they found tons of Roman ruins when working on the Cathedral. Amazing.

We went to Aachen, but did not see much of the town. We had lunch in the Christmas Market, but it was super cold and foggy. I will probably go back to Aachen so we will get a chance to explore more. On the drive home, we hit Luxembourg. We did not see much there, so there is no reason to go back. But it is another European country we have been to, bringing our total to 12 if you count Northern Ireland and Vatican City. However, Luxembourg does have cheap gas if you are ever nearby. I guess they don't do all the EU taxes?

Mark said we had to try some Kolsch beer, and I thought he said Grolsch. Grolsch is everywhere, but Kolsch apparently is only in Koln.

Kolsch Gaffel - Not great with some after taste.
Kolsch Reissdorf - Similar to the Gaffel
Diekirk - From Luxembourg! Again, nothing spectacular.

The Ludwigsburg market was one of the nicest we have seen. They had the most unique booths. Most markets pretty much have the same stuff. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a little over an hour from Stuttgart. It was also the first Christmas Market Andi had ever seen and it is in a little unique little Midevil walled town. They had a small market, but the buildings were pretty and it was not too crowded (unlike others). However, they really are a tourist spot. I heard tons of English in the mix and saw a lot of Japanese tourists as well.